436 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and the markets of the Western world, permitting the dealers and con- 

 sumers of the latter to adjust to a nicety their supplies of commodities 

 to varying demands, and with the reduction of the time of the voyage 

 to thirty days or less, there was no longer any necessity of laying up 

 great stores of Eastern commodities in Europe ; and with the termi- 

 nation of this necessity, the India warehouse and distribution system 

 of England, with all the labor and all the capital and banking incident 

 to it, substantially passed away. Europe, and to some extent the 

 United States, ceased to go to England for such supplies. If Austria 

 wanted anything of Indian product, it stopped en route, by the Suez 

 Canal, at Trieste ; if Italy, at Venice or Genoa ; if France, at Mar- 

 seilles ; if Spain, at Cadiz. As a rule, also, stocks of Indian produce 

 are now kept, not only in the countries, but at the very localities of 

 their production, and are there drawn upon as they are wanted for 

 immediate consumption, with a greatly reduced employment of the 

 former numerous and expensive intermediate agencies.* Thus, a Cal- 

 cutta merchant or commission agent at any of the world's great centers 

 of commerce contracts through a clerk and the telegraph with a manu- 

 facturer in any country it may be half round the globe removed 

 to sell him jute, cotton, hides, spices, cutch, linseed, or other like India 

 produccf An inevitable steamer is sure to be in an Eastern port, ready 

 to sail upon short notice ; the merchandise wanted is bought by tele- 



* In illustration of this curious point, attention is asked to the following extract from 

 a review of the trade of British India, for the year 1886, from the "Times," of India, 

 published at Bombay: " What the mercantile community '' i. e., of Bombay "has suf- 

 fered and is suffering from, is the very narrow margin which now exists between the 

 producer and consumer. Twenty years ago the large importing houses held stocks, but 

 nowadays nearly everything is sold to arrive, or bought in execution of native orders, and 

 the bazaar dealers, instead of European importers, have become the holders of stocks. 

 The cable and canal have to answer for the transformation ; while the ease with which 

 funds can be secured at home by individuals absolutely destitute of all knowledge of the 

 trade, and minu3 the capital to work it, has resulted in the diminution of profits both to 

 importers and to bazaar dealer^."' 



f- Familiar as are the public generally with the operations of the telegraph and the 

 changes in trade and commerce consequent upon its submarine extension, the following 

 incident of personal experience may present certain features with which they are not ac- 

 quainted : In the winter of 1884 the writer journeyed from New York to Washington with 

 an eminent Boston merchant engaged in the Calcutta trade. Calling upon the merchant 



the same evening, after arrival in Washington, he said : " Here is something, Mr. , 



that may interest you. Just before leaving State Street, in Boston, yesterday forenoon, 

 I telegraphed to my agent in Calcutta, ' If you can buy hides and gunny-bags at price, 

 and find a vessel ready to charter, buy and ship.' When I arrived here (Washington), 

 this afternoon (4 p. m.), I found awaiting me this telegram from my partner in Boston, 

 covering another from Calcutta, received in answer to my dispatch of the previous day, 

 which read as follows : ' Hides and gunny-bags purchased, vessel chartered, and loading 

 btgun? " 



Here, then, as an every-day occurrence, was the record of a transaction on the other 

 side of the globe, the correspondence in relation to which traveled a distance equivalent 

 to the entire circumference of the globe, all completed in a space of little more than 

 twenty-four hours ! 



